Ice making systems for use aboard boats, ships, and the like, have been long known and are reflected in such patents as U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,559 (1984) and No. 4,525,073 (1985), both to Spinner, entitled Ice Making Apparatus; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,574,593 (1986) and No. 4,576,016 (1986), both to Nelson, entitled Ice Making Apparatus. Products of the King Seely Thermos Company are similarly directed to ice making apparatus for use aboard ships, boats and the like, including means for dropping ice product output to lower levels within a boat.
A problem which has been recognized by boatsman and the like has been that of transporting ice flake, cubes, or other ice products formed by systems such as those referenced above, from outside of the marinecraft to various levels of the craft separated in both vertical height and horizontal distance from the location of the ice making apparatus. In such situations, it is necessary for a member of the crew to physically carry the location of the ice making apparatus to one or more remote locations within the marinecraft at which such ice product is to be used.
This requirement for manual delivery of the ice product from the location of the ice making apparatus to a remote area of the marinecraft has resulted in lost time and decreased crew efficiency.
It is a response to this problem, as it manifests itself in both pleasure marine applications and commercial marine applications, that the present invention is directed.